Bassfinger

Euphemism overload!

I don't find neck dive a problem on any bass. Depends very much on your dimensions, and your preferred position/height, so neck dive experiences and preferences are entitely personal to each individual. I had a play on a colleages HB dual pickup Stingray clone a while back. It was very, very, very nice, couldn't fault the finish or the sound. Active onboard electronics and it had a grear tone - not vintage (ypwhich a Musicman wouldn't give you anyway) and not super-clear modern either. A nice tidy in between, with nice highs but a touch of mud when pressed lower down. Even the setup out of the box was first class. If the HB logo on the headstock had been hidden I could have easily believed it had cost 5 or 6 hundred quid, not £160. Indeed, im not sure the entry Stingray Sub is any better for a lot more money. Loved it so much Mrs Bassfinger is buying me one for Crimbo. And thats what HB do - they're not the best out there, not without fault, but they bring levels of build, finish, sound and playability that most manufacturers cant match at three times the price. If you have more than 3 times the cash to spend then you can start to look elsewhere, but if you don't then theyre a viable alternative for someone who wants more from a new bass than they could otherwise afford. If you can afford a new or used MIJ Fender then you wouldn't be considering an HB anyway, so im not sure theres a comparison to be had there. Indeed, MIJ Fenders can vary so much in character with the model and year it can be tricky to make a comparison against each other. Thomannn also have a fair rep for customer services. Reports generally ageee that if one does arrive faulty then Thomman are usually pretty swift about swapping it. Compare that with the grief we hear of from owners of boutique or custom basses who try to get problems sorted, or even of cooking Fenders and the like. In summary, cheap, but with plenty of cheer. Those who like or even love them seem to massively outnumber those who don't. If you want classic tones look somewhere else. If you want something immaculately presented that will kick a Westfield in the nuts and steal its lunch money and which sounds nice in it's own right, then theyre for you.

Exactly that. Great player, and I'm sure hes a nice chap, but his approach, musical style and methods simply don't tug my rug.

I'd never heard of him until I googled him as a result of this thread. In 10 minites time ill have forgotten the name.

Back in the 70s and 80s Woolworths would sell guitars. Horrible finger slocing things. Probably not it, but I cant think of owt else.

The feel of a nice fat Precision neck, ideally an early ish onenwith a flattish fretboard radius. It feels good in the hand, like it means business.

Oh yes, the boys at Fender won't speak to peiple on the phone because of the virus. That smells fishier than my home made apple pie - they aint gonna catch the virus over the blower, so reverting to nothing but email sounds suspiciously like bullpois.

Dunlop Tortex Triangle 1.0 mm for me. Thick and heavy, but with a very slight bit of give which I feel helps with tone and feel.

So a never-was is accusing Clapton of being a has-been?

I recall that Ralph Macchio had very extensive training from Ry Cooder in order to be able to look convincing when filming Crossroads (the film, not the soap.)

Does he still wash his hair in Lenor? Perhaps that's the secret of his bass skills.

Unless the allegations were untrue, which makes the context of this discussion even more pertinent. Alas, we'll never know.

But isn't it strange? Before he'd become close to George Harrison (and pinched his wife) he was Jimi Hendrix's closest friend. He spent most of the 70's either off his face or high as a kite. It's possible tate behaviour was attributable to his addictions. Or he may genuinely be racist, which again makes his friendship with Hendrix rather at odds with that kind of outlook. Who knows? Who really cares?

Aaarrgghhh, my beautiful eyes!

He has had a couple of flashes of brilliance with Cream, then Layla, Bell Bottom Blues, but hes also knocked out some entire albums of dirge, such as Money and Cigarettes, August, etc. As for Phallic Badger, I've never even heard of him, so I guess they're compensating for something with such a comment.

It's funny, because it's true.

I've nothing against drummers at all. There are 3 musicians in our band, and a drummer.

Those Hohners were decent instruments. They sell for good money these days. As good as Steinbergers were - I love them - the move by Gibson to more traditional construction wasn't all bad news. The Spirits are decent instruments in their own right and good value, and dont suffer the age related neck issues that many of the truss rod-less Steinbergers do with the passing of time. Indeed, the contemporary Hohner copy tends to withstand time much better than the original, which could be why prices are on the up. Fundamentally, the original Steinberger was flawed. Cracking on 50 years ago when Ned Steinberger started work on these designs he didn't have the benefit of the modern materials and the understanding of their characteristics that we do today, which is probably why modern firms can make them better and cheaper. In the case of Gibson, they followed the profit - theres no physical reason that they couldn't have updated the design using modern materials and composites, but they're a volume seller that tends to rely on high turnover as their business model. To that end, they've done very well - the Spirit is an ok instrument and a consistent seller, yet probably costs them no more to manufacture than, say, a Harley Benton Jazz Bass, so they're making good money off it. Fair play to them. Smaller manufacturers target different markets and run different business models, and that's where the likes of Status come in - their operating model would never allow them the growth to Gibson levels of turnover, but the benefit is that they can concentrate on developing smaller volume, higher profit instruments. It's physics, materials science and business, all rolled into one! Were Ned to release the Steinberger today, it would be a different matter entirely. He was simply born 40 or 50 years too early.

Blimey. One of my fave bassists, gone.

Yep, I'm very sure. Fashion finishes and basic designs are completely different concepts.

OTT fancy wood finishes on modern basses puts me off. Last time it checked it wasn't 1993 - the world has turned since then.

My toolbox is moderate and while I'm no craftsman I have some hands-on experience with tools from work. Consider me average in ability, perhaps a notch higher, but most definitely no craftsman. My skills lay with basic assembly of parts, and minor reworking to make them fit fully. I don't think I do anything that the average hobbyist couldn't, provided they take their time and use a modicum of care. The next step of shaping bodies from a block of wood, or creating necks from scratch, is well beyond me and I have massive admiration for the amateur luthiers on the forum. However, the careful sourcing of parts and their assembly to an equally careful standard is, I feel, something than the average Joe on here could equally manage with a mediocre array of tools. I have zero training, but I do have eyes to use when sourcing parts and opposable thumbs with which to wield tools - with luck you have all that too.

Morning. Ebay. There are loads for sale but it took about 2 months of patient daily checking before this one showed up from a guy in Ireland at a very nice price of £40 delivered. It was new and he had a handful of both P and J necks for sale. I messaged him, and he seemed to know what he was on about so I took a punt. I was expecting reasonable, but was absolutely blown away, all expectations surpassed. I finished it in Danish oil and then was with 0000 wire wool, which darkened it a bit close to the colour of the body than the original near white maple colour. It's quite an olde fashioned feeling neck with a fairly flat fretboard radius and fairly square edges, but I like the flat tish feel and the edges are very, very neatly finished so the lack of modern rounding off isn't an issue. The body is an ash job from Gear4music. Again, very pleasantly surprised. It's a (or several) nice piece of wood, very neatly machined with a lovely deep clear poly finish. The rest is either from my box of scrap or from China, the later after very close scrutiny and comparison of pictures. I'm particularly pleased with the pots and wiring loom from China, which are big old things with a lovely smooth, well damped action and a nice logarithmic response.

I would only agree with that to a point. Buying parts online can mean an imperfect fit, or at least a fit that may require fettling. However, that isn't automatically the case. With a big dose of luck the neck on my latest bitsa fitted my new ash body with absolute surgical precision. I nearly cried tears of joy, it was that neat and close a fit in the neck pocket. The neck itself is also superb, with even and well finished frets - I've not had to do any tinkering with fret dressing etc. I've played relatively expensive instruments with necks that weren't prepared as tidily. It cost me about a hundred quid to build and I'm confident in tone, feel and playability it would not embarrass itself in the company of any P bass from any manufacturer costing 10 times that. And whatever happens, it'll never, ever be worth less than it cost me to build, so straight away it has an edge over most cooking Fender models. Do it properly and you're in reality far less likely to lose money than you would buying something from a production line. So you can get lucky and components can fit to a high degree of precision. If not, care, patience and moderate hand tool skills can make them fit - after all, that's all they do in the factory. You can make a rough old dog, but to be fair you have to either be completely inept or lazy to end up with one that bad.